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Hospital apologizes for error that killed woman

The hospital affiliated with Ryukyu University’s medical section has apologized for a medical error committed last month as technicians prepared a 60-year-old woman for artificial blood dialysis.

Kazuhiro Sugawara, the Ryukyu University Medical Section director, and others have apologized to the woman’s family and explained the case is under investigation. The woman had been receiving dialysis for nine years because of renal failure, but in the January instance, a problem happened and the woman died. Officials say a tube had been inserted in a jugular vein, and the woman bled the following day and died during dialysis.

Officials say the tube insertions had been a problem with the woman, leading to the woman’s arrival at the hospital for treatment. Doctors attempted to insert the tube from the jugular, officials say, but there was a problem so the hospital used CT scanning to try and locate the problem.